1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and a communication parameter setting method which automatically set communication parameters for a wireless network.
2. Description of the Related Art
To communicate on a wireless LAN, communicating instruments need to set wireless LAN parameters (hereinafter referred to as communication parameters) such as an SSID (Service Set ID), an encryption key, an authentication scheme, and an authentication key. Configuration of these communication parameters has been cumbersome to users, and various methods have been proposed for simplifying the process.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-204335 describes a method in which if wireless network identification information contained in a beacon matches wireless network identification information stored in a communication instrument, corresponding fixed communication parameters are set for wireless communication. The beacon is a signal transmitted by an instrument having already constructed a wireless network. The instrument having received the beacon pre-stores the fixed communication parameters and the corresponding wireless network identification information.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-094736 describes a method which compares the wireless network identification information contained in the beacon with multiple pieces of network identification information stored in the communication instrument, and if the former matches any of the latter, selects and sets the corresponding communication parameters. This document also describes an operation of the communication parameter setting method which enables switching between automatic and manual selecting means.
However, with the methods for setting communication parameters described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2003-204335 and 2004-094736, the setting communication parameters are fixed. Consequently, if a third party obtains the fixed communication parameters by eavesdropping, security is disadvantageously compromised.
To solve this problem, a method has been proposed which automatically generates and sets communication parameters. The following has actually been implemented as a product: a method of automatically transferring communication parameter settings for an access point (repeater) and a station (terminal) from the access point to the station via simple operations. With the method for setting communication parameters between an access point and a station, the communication instruments use communication parameter setting wireless network identification information (for example, an encryption key) to construct a communication parameter setting wireless network to set the communication parameters.
With the method for automatically setting the communication parameters, for some of the communication parameters, different parameters are generated and set for each communication. This makes it possible to achieve both security and convenience. Operations based on this technique are described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215232.
However, various methods for automatically setting the communication parameters are now available, that is, the method for automatically setting the communication parameters varies. Thus, if an instrument supports a plurality of automatic communication parameter setting methods, one of the automatic communication parameter setting methods must be selected to set the communication parameters. It is possible to allow users to select one of the automatic communication parameter setting methods. However, doing so increases the number of operations that must be performed by the user.